Flower Crown
by Depressed Chibi
Summary: It was the first time Zane had seen spring.


"_Please_, please, please, please?"

Dr. Julien quit his tinkering and looked to his creation, Zane. The boy was knelt beside the seated inventor, hands clasped together and pale blue eyes wide. Dr. Julien pushed up his wire rimmed glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. A sigh of exhaustion escaped his lips.

Zane had been begging for months to go outside. The inventor had only taken the boy outside once since his "birth" to test Zane's skin against the environment's conditions. After he had seen a world beyond what he knew Zane wanted more. He was no longer happy with staying inside the house – no, he wanted out.

"Just for a little while. Ten minutes, that's it," Zane whined, tugging lightly on the inventor's pants.

Dr. Julien pursed his lips, weighing the consequences. Zane had started to become more restless than usual. Deciding that it would get him to stop begging, Julien put away the screw driver he had been using and nodded at Zane. "Alright, I suppose we could both use some fresh air," the inventor said with a smile.

Zane's face lit up with excitement. Without a word he stumbled to his feet, ran for the stairs, and climbed them two steps at a time. Dr. Julien smiled and shook his head at the boy's enthusiasm. The man began collecting his blue prints to put away, but a sudden yelp stopped him.

Dr. Julien's heart dropped when his brain processed that that had been Zane's voice. The man immediately dropped what was in his hands and raced up the stairs. He found Zane standing idly only inches out of the house.

"Zane, what's wrong?" Dr. Julien asked, cautiously placing a hand on one of Zane's shoulders.

The boy threw his gaze over his shoulder and back at the outside world. He had been at a loss for words. Zane pointed to the ground, trees, and back again vigorously. The older man furrowed his eyebrows in confusion; there was nothing out of the ordinary.

The ground was plush with green grass and colorful flowers. Trees were beginning to bare fruit, as per usual in the spring. Julien looked at Zane completely perplexed. The boy seemed shocked at his creator's nonchalant attitude.

"What is that?!" Zane asked finally, waving his arms dramatically to the land and trees.

Dr. Julien stared at the the boy as if he had five heads. Slowly, it all began to make sense and a smile formed on his face. The inventor chuckled as he placed both his hands firmly on Zane's shoulders and pushed him further outside. "It's okay, Zane, nothing's wrong. You see, in this world there are changing seasons. That means that sometimes there will be snow on the ground and other times there's nothing but grass," he explained, motioning to the grass below their feet.

Zane was motionless for a few seconds before he pouted. "But I wanted to play in the snow," the boy complained meekly.

"Spring can be fun too. Besides, you wanted to play outside, didn't you?" Dr. Julien commented, moving away to sit against the wall of their tree house.

Zane looked at Julien before back to the grass. He gave a slight shrug, knowing that he should enjoy the outdoors no matter what kind of..._season_ it was. Zane raised his arms to either side of him and fell into the grass. There was a hard thump as the android disappeared into the shimmering, green grass.

Dr. Julien snorted in amusement. No matter how much Zane had been built to look like a young adult he stilled acted like a child. Though, technically the android was only four years old.

Blond hair peeked above the green blades of grass. Suddenly a hand shot up clutching a bundle of flowers. Zane sat up so that he could see Dr. Julien and pointed to what was in his hand. "What are these?"

"Flowers. They bloom in the spring and stay during summer – another season. There's all different kinds of flowers," Dr. Julien explained.

"They smell so nice," Zane said softly before flopping onto his back once again. The inventor smiled as he watched Zane enjoy the sun and light breeze. Dr. Julien folded his hands atop of his lap and leaned further back into the bark that lined his house. He hadn't realized how tired he had been. Julien's eye lids dropped down slightly. With his creation seemingly napping in the grass Dr. Julien figured it would do no harm if he rested too. Only for a moment.

* * *

Dr. Julien groggily woke up from his nap feeling a stiffness in his neck. The world around him was incredibly blurred, but Julien figured it was because of just waking up. After a moments without his vision improving the man began to feel something was wrong.

Dr. Julien brushed his fingers against his temple only to find his glasses missing. Now alert, the man frantically patted down the grass on either side of him in search of his glasses. "Zane, have you seen my – " Dr. Julien stopped himself in a horrific realization of how quiet it was. "_Zane_?" Dr. Julien shouted, standing with the help of the tree.

"_Zane_, where are you?" Dr. Julien shouted, panicking for the well-being of the android. The inventor started to walk quickly forward; however, without his sight impaired he stumbled easily. Dr. Julien continued to walk with determination, but his foot caught on a tree root and sent him to the ground.

"_Dad,_" a distant voice called. Seconds later a white-gray blob appeared in front of the inventor. "Sorry, I forgot to give these back to you," Zane said, holding his creator's glasses in front of his eyes.

Dr. Julien put the glasses on and gave Zane a gracious smile. Dr. Julien examined the boy's face seeing dirt caked over his cheeks and forehead, but looking happier than he had ever been before. A smile that beamed, eyes that glowed, and a precious flower cro – Dr. Julien paused.

"Zane, what is that on your head?"

"Flowers,"

"Yes, but why?"

Without missing a beat of faltering his eagerness the android answered, "To match yours."

"Mine?" Dr. Julien asked, touching a hand to the top of his head. Like Zane had said, the older man had a crown made a flowers resting on his head. Carefully, Dr. Julien took the crown off his head and looked at it. It was a combination of white Achilleas and lavender Celeste asters, all braided by the stem to form a stiff base. Dr. Julien looked back to the android to see that they were indeed matching.

"It took a while finding them all and the stems broke quite easily," Zane blurted out, the silence making him uncomfortable. His smile fell slightly as he thought that his creator was mad at him.

Dr. Julien stared again at his own crown. He could see the work that had went into it and the time it must have taken. Julien noted that the sky was growing an orange-pinkish shade; it had indeed been hours. Dr. Julien felt a stinging sensation in his eyes.

"Uh, my apologies," Zane said, snatching his own crown off of his head. "I-I didn't know you would be offended so..." Zane trailed off, a smile had made it's way onto the man's face despite the tears that now rolled down his face.

Dr. Julien placed one hand on Zane's back and held the other against the back of the boy's head. Dr. Julien pulled the android into a tight hug, sobbing still.

"What...?" Zane asked, confused by the mixed response.

"_These_ are tears of joy," Julien said, smiling. Zane returned the hug, though, he still didn't fully understand. It wasn't until the android picked up the professor's whispered, "The son I've never had," that he returned the hug with as much enthusiasm as Julien.

That renewed Dr. Julien's tears and even brought some wetness to the android's eyes. The two stayed in hug a moment longer before Dr. Julien pulled away from his creation. "How about we go inside now? I'll make you your favorite dinner," Julien said, smiling ear to ear.

Zane gave a vigorous nod and placed the flower crown back onto his head. The older man did the same as he got to his feet and led his creation – no – his _son_ into their house.


End file.
